Research: Technology and Detection

Abstract Adulteration of botanical food supplements with undeclared synthetic drugs is a common problem. One of the most affected product groups are the slimming agents. There are no analytical protocols for the detection of synthetic adulterants from these products. The present study aimed at the development of a multistep analytical method for the quick and…

Abstract: We investigate the manipulation of web search results to promote the unauthorized sale of prescription drugs. We focus on search-redirection attacks, where miscreants compromise high-ranking websites and dynamically redirect traffic to different pharmacies based upon the particular search terms issued by the consumer. We constructed a representative list of 218 drug-related queries and automatically…

Background: Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), linked to inappropriate medication use and higher health care expenditures, is the fastest growing form of pharmaceutical marketing. DTCA is legal only in the United States and New Zealand. However, the advent of online interactive social media “Web 2.0” technologies—that is, eDTCA 2.0—may circumvent DTCA legal proscriptions.Objective: The purpose of this study was…

Spam-based advertising is a business. While it has engendered both widespread antipathy and a multi-billion dollar anti-spam industry, it continues to exist because it fuels a profitable enterprise. We lack, however, a solid understanding of this enterprise’s full structure, and thus most anti-spam interventions focus on only one facet of the overall spam value chain…

Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) is legal only in the United States and New Zealand and has been linked with drug overutilization, public health concerns, and higher costs. 1 Despite global proscriptions, DTCA is the most rapidly increasing form of pharmaceutical marketing, with approximately $4 billion in US expenditures, outpacing physician marketing and research and development. Liang…

Acute renal failure in children can have a variety of causes. There have been several epidemics of acute renal failure affecting predominantly young children where the cause has been diethylene glycol (DEG) poisoning. These children have presented with gastrointestinal bleeding, seizures and liver failure as well as renal failure. The poisoning has been the result…

Both nationally and internationally, pharmaceutical counterfeiting has become a problem that is threatening economic stability and public health. The purpose of the present research study review was to analyze the scope and severity of pharmaceutical counterfeiting and to establish if the implantation of the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) model can more efficiently be used…

"For export only" anti-inflammatory and lightening creams are medicinal products sold in African countries for their skin whitening action. In the last years, Rapid Alerts from European Medicinal Regulatory Agencies evidenced the presence of a large number of illegal and counterfeit anti-inflammatory products advertised for their whitening action on black skin in the European market.…

In recent years, the number of counterfeit drugs has increased dramatically, including not only "lifestyle" products but also vital medicines. Besides the threat to public health, the financial and reputational damage to pharmaceutical companies is substantial. The lack of robust information on the prevalence of fake drugs is an obstacle in the fight against drug…

The growth of pharmaceutical counterfeiting is a major public health problem. This growth is resulting in a proportional increase in the number of samples that medicines control laboratories have to test. Thus the need for simple and affordable preliminary screening methods to be used by inspectors to decide in the field whether to collect a…